andrewk529
New member
I'm anxious to see this tank come to fruition. One of the coolest ideas I've seen in awhile, G/L with this project.
A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium
- Thread starter nahham
- Start date
Mrbeachbum2
New member
Fish will not realize they left the ocean
Falconeer
Can I get another tank?
+1!
Simply amazing! I can hardly believe my eyes. The bar has been set higher for the "Crazy" Large Reef Tanks. I hope to be able to build/pull-off a tank maybe 1/10th that size when I settle down into adulthood, haha!.
Good luck finishing your build, I can't wait to see it finished.
nahham
New member
Thank you for the comment; I'll keep that in mind. I'll need to monitor the water quality quite closely at the beginning. As for the water, I'll think of a reservoir for some water put away somewhere. The only issue here is that I'll need quite a bit
. The fish farm and aquarium has a total volume of ~65,000 gallons.
dragonfish_!
New member
wow
Bax
Premium Member
A big surge tank is probably a great idea for such a large tank, as long as the glass people are OK with the stress it'll induce on those 10' glass sections. Maybe only run the surge during those close loop periods to make up for the reduced flow and fresh NSW.
The only issue that really sticks in my head as a concern that can't be easily manged with plumbing is, when you need to run the system as a closed loop, what about fish diseases moving from the fish farm to the aquarium. Don't fish farms normally treat heavily to minimize disease? If so would these meds negativley impact the reef fishes and inverts??? :fish1:
The only issue that really sticks in my head as a concern that can't be easily manged with plumbing is, when you need to run the system as a closed loop, what about fish diseases moving from the fish farm to the aquarium. Don't fish farms normally treat heavily to minimize disease? If so would these meds negativley impact the reef fishes and inverts??? :fish1:
With only a few hundred fish in the fish farm (only a few hundred...), there may not be as much of a need to run intensive antibiotics as in a high-density aquaculture operation. This page contains a couple of pictures of genuine high-density fish stocking.
300 fish over 45,000 gallons is 0.0067 fish per gallon. If we use this article's assumption that drums have a wet weight of approximately 140 grams each, that works out to 0.93 grams/gallon, well below any of the densities tested in the article.
In terms of lighting, don't forget that this tank will benefit from true sunlight, so the angle of light will fluctuate throughout the day. Even the areas under the walkway may receive some light at certain times. Plus, it's perfectly natural for a reef to have light zones and darker zones. There might be some very interesting things happening in the dark (or at least less bright) zone.
300 fish over 45,000 gallons is 0.0067 fish per gallon. If we use this article's assumption that drums have a wet weight of approximately 140 grams each, that works out to 0.93 grams/gallon, well below any of the densities tested in the article.
In terms of lighting, don't forget that this tank will benefit from true sunlight, so the angle of light will fluctuate throughout the day. Even the areas under the walkway may receive some light at certain times. Plus, it's perfectly natural for a reef to have light zones and darker zones. There might be some very interesting things happening in the dark (or at least less bright) zone.
nahham
New member
The fish I bring to the fish farm is bred at the ministry of environment and water's ocean center. They are a hardy bunch and I kept them for more than 6 months without the need for any treatment. Also, as KarlBob mentions, I have a very low density of fish in the fish farm, maybe I should stop calling it a fish farm, maybe a fish spa?
You can't understand how happy your post made me
. Thank you for taking the time to research the thing about the fish farm; I tried without success. When it comes to academic research, I'll stick to what I know: IT & Usability. I had conflicting thoughts regarding the lighting under the seating area: on one hand, I was thinking that the variation in lighting will have some interesting effect, on the other, I didn't want to end with little growth because it is shaded. Again, thank you Fish spa! I like it. If they're surviving for six months without treatment, I doubt they'll cause many problems for the reef.The fish I bring to the fish farm is bred at the ministry of environment and water's ocean center. They are a hardy bunch and I kept them for more than 6 months without the need for any treatment. Also, as KarlBob mentions, I have a very low density of fish in the fish farm, maybe I should stop calling it a fish farm, maybe a fish spa?
There's plenty more information available online, but what little I found seemed to confirm that your stocking level is pretty light for a fish farm.You can't understand how happy your post made me
You're very welcome. Thank you for sharing this amazing project with us. Because the reef will be receiving ocean water, I think some low-light organisms (sponges, mussels, etc.) could hitch-hike their way in. Even if you don't run them 8 hours a day, the lights underneath the walkway still sound like a good idea to me. Turning them on when you come to view the tank might reveal some neat things in the shadows.I had conflicting thoughts regarding the lighting under the seating area: on one hand, I was thinking that the variation in lighting will have some interesting effect, on the other, I didn't want to end with little growth because it is shaded. Again, thank you
ransomed4ever
New member
Maybe, I'm not understanding something, but are you planning on using a siphon to flow from the refugium to the tank? If you are building from scratch whay not just have things built so the refugium water line is slightly (say 30cm) higher than the water line of the tank? That way gravity can take care of the flow into the tank, and there would be no worries about the problems ussually associated with siphon overflows like a siphon break or clog. I have yet to hear about gravity failing to flow water downhill.
nahham
New member
Thanks for bringing that up
I was thinking that using a siphon will be better than a "gravity" because of the fact that it won't skim the top of the water into the aquarium. Does that make sense? Does it matter? The deeper I go into this the less I seem to know
ransomed4ever
New member
you could still get surface skimming, the water levels just have to be higher in the fuge than in the display. You could achieve this by raising the height of the fuge walls to a little higher than those of the tank (but you said you really didn't want to do that), or you just need make sure the display water level is lower than in the fuge (which you'd have to do with a siphon anyway). All you would essentially need to do is cut a weir (notches) in the part of the wall that is between the fuge and the display. Like in this drawing. Imagine you are standing in the fuge looking at the wall between the fuge and display.
IMG]
[/IMG]
This would be a top down view with the fuge on the left and the display on the right, and the red circle is where the notches would be cut and the blue arrow is the direction of water flow.
[/IMG]
This would be a front on view. See how the water level is higher in the fuge and it flows kind of like a mini waterfall into the tank(the red circled area)? This way the surface water from the fuge would be flowing into the display, and in reality you could do the same thing from the display into the fish farm.
[/IMG]
If you didn't want the waterfall effect you could basically insert pipes with their top openings just below the water line in the fuge and have them run on a downhill angle into the display and accomplish the same purpose. Even with the pipes this way there is no siphon, gravity simply pulls the water downhill through them.
IMG]
This would be a top down view with the fuge on the left and the display on the right, and the red circle is where the notches would be cut and the blue arrow is the direction of water flow.
This would be a front on view. See how the water level is higher in the fuge and it flows kind of like a mini waterfall into the tank(the red circled area)? This way the surface water from the fuge would be flowing into the display, and in reality you could do the same thing from the display into the fish farm.
If you didn't want the waterfall effect you could basically insert pipes with their top openings just below the water line in the fuge and have them run on a downhill angle into the display and accomplish the same purpose. Even with the pipes this way there is no siphon, gravity simply pulls the water downhill through them.
ransomed4ever
New member
herea a quick side view of the pipes(the grey cylinder between the two tanks) the yellow is just some type of stainer if you wanted it. You could simply do one large pipe that could handle the volume of water or several smaller ones.
[/IMG]
nahham
New member
Thank you ransomed4ever for your input. It does make more sense to use the method you described to achieve what I want. I just didn't want the "scum" on the top of the water in the refugium to move into the main tank and that was the only reason I was planning to use a siphon.
I've updated the plans to use some sort of waterfall. Here is the illustration:
However, I remember that I've read somewhere that it is not recommended for water to actually "fall". Any changes to this design to decrease that? Remember that I'm working with concrete and even though I like your pipe idea it can't be implemented.
I've updated the plans to use some sort of waterfall. Here is the illustration:
However, I remember that I've read somewhere that it is not recommended for water to actually "fall". Any changes to this design to decrease that? Remember that I'm working with concrete and even though I like your pipe idea it can't be implemented.
If the scum on top of the water in the refugium doesn't flow into the aquarium, where will it go? From what I understand, there's no plan for a super-sized protein skimmer in the refugium. If you succeeded in preventing the surface layer of the refugium from moving into the aquarium, it seems like the scum would just build up in the refugium.
nahham
New member
OK in all fairness I never had that problem when I was running the "fish spa" aka fish farm
But even if it does build up in the refugium it will be cleaned as a skimmer would
I just remembered something. Last year at IMAC West, a gentleman named Joseph Yaiullo gave a presentation about his own giant tank project, which eventually became the 20,000 gallon reef system at Atlantis Marine World Long Island Aquarium. He might have some very valuable insight regarding this project. The Atlantis Marine World Web site lists Mr. Yaiullo's email address as animalcare@amwny.com.
barnabus's gimp
New member
dang I can't wait to see this thing with fish and corals in it. I'm sure your cycle time will be cut to a minimum seeing as how you are using everything directly from the ocean... what kinds of corals do you have in that area?
ransomed4ever
New member
nahham, what you drew out there is almost exactly what I was thinking. I really don't see much of anywhere for the water to "fall" except maybe the last little bit before the waterline of the tank. If you are worried about that why not just make the slope of the little channel slope down to just below the display water line. then it will just flow right into the display water with no "fall".
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